ASOSU proposes start for Our Little Village

By Mary Ann Albright
Gazette-Times reporter

The Associated Students of Oregon State University’s Executive Committee has named child care for student parents a top priority for this school year.

As part of this commitment, a child care center called Our Little Village, primarily geared toward student parents, is being considered.

The Executive Committee is asking the Student Incidental Fees Committee for some of the $2.4 million owed to the students for the $1.2 million they contributed to the Athletic Department’s Reser Stadium expansion project.

The Athletic Department will pay the students about $350,000 per year for seven years. The first payment was made in October, and the last will occur in the 2011-12 academic year.

The Our Little Village initiative was first launched in 1997. In 1998, $1 per student per term in student fees started going into a fund to construct a student-operated child care center. An additional $1.21 per student per term was collected to cover the operating expenses of such a facility.

However, students later learned that university policies prohibit the use of student fees for capital construction projects. They stopped collecting the $1 per student per term, but continued to collect the $1.21.

Since 2003, this amount was reduced to 50 cents per student per term to fund Our Little Village, should a physical space for the child care center become available.

According to Stephanie Slusher, intern in the Associated Students of OSU’s Office of Legal Advocacy, and a major proponent of Our Little Village, there’s now about $600,000 in the fund.

Slusher, a 21-year-old senior from Corvallis majoring in liberal studies, hopes profits from the Raising Reser loan can help fund construction of Our Little Village.

The center also is on the Oregon University System’s list of approved capital construction projects, so that’s another potential source of funds. Slusher hopes Our Little Village will be up and running within the next few years.

At least 75 percent of Our Little Village’s clients would be OSU student parents. There’s talk of offering evening child care there, which Slusher said is crucial for parents taking night classes or wanting to attend night study groups. The center would also offer care for sick children, so parents could still go to class when their kids are ill.

There’s also the option of operating the center as a co-op, meaning student parents could work at Our Little Village in exchange for free child care. With the pool of money available from student fees, Slusher believes Our Little Village could subsidize up to 40 percent of child care costs for all of its student parent clients.

For more information about OSU’s Student Parent Association, email the group at spa@lists.oregonstate.edu.

ON THE NET:

More information about OSU child care and other local child care providers is available online at http://oregonstate.edu/childcare and www.lbcc.cc.or.us/familyresources/familyconnections/.

One mother’s story

Janice Levenhagen, a fifth-year student majoring in computer engineering, is definitely interested in the possibility of Our Little Village and other more affordable child care options for her 5-year-old son, Nathan.

Nathan previously attended KinderCare, but Levenhagen, 22 and a graduate of Winston Churchill High School in Eugene, moved him to Hoover Elementary School’s kindergarten this fall, expecting it to be less expensive.

Levenhagen pays $285 per month for the Hoover program, plus an addition $200 per month for the STARS after school program, so she said her bill is actually a little higher since Nathan left KinderCare.

Levenhagen received about $165 this term from the Associated Students of OSU’s child care subsidy program, but she expects her total costs will be $1,800.

Levenhagen is the activities coordinator for OSU’s Student Parent Association.

In this campus group, student parents such as Levenhagen meet regularly, often in kid-friendly places such as parks or casual restaurants, to share their frustrations, concerns and triumphs.

“We’re trying to support student parents in going to school. It helps to have a network. Student parents need to make time for their emotional and social needs, too,” Levenhagen said.

This was the second of a two-part series.

Mary Ann Albright covers higher education. She can be reached at maryann.albright@lee.net or 758-9518.